Quotes from big series win

“Boy that was a huge game right there. When you’tre playing the teams on top, they’re two-game games into one. If we lose, we go to five [back]. If we win, we go to three.” — Dusty Baker

“Obviously it was a pretty intense series. I’m glad we came out on top. I went to Milwaukee and they were in the lead at the time. Then we played St. Louis and they were in the lead when they first got here. It’s been two tough series. It’s going to be that way the rest of the year.” — Zack Cozart

“It’s as good as I’ve pitched. It’s definitely not as good as I’ve felt. We’ll take the wins as they come, right? I think every player goes through that. Some days they show up and don’t feel great. But it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to win. The outcome – we couldn’t have pictured it any better against the Cardinals being how tight the division is. That was a good bonus for us. Now we go to Pittsburgh and everything is great.” — Homer Bailey

“Every game from now on is important. The next three and all the games we have left. We’re not only fighting against St. Louis. We’ve got Pittsburgh and the Brewers in front of us. We just have to take advantage every time, every opportunity that we have.” — Francisco Cordero

“It was big. Garcia is tough. We didn’t hit him hard. He’s got a great ERA. He’s a great pitcher. Even the hits we got, we weren’t driving the ball against him. I was trying to put the ball in play, trying to get it into the outfield. I found a hole and was fortunate. It was a big a run for us.” — Ryan Hanigan

“He just didn’t make many mistakes. He was down in the strike zone and moving the ball pretty well.” — Cardinals RF Lance Berkman on Bailey.

“I made it a point to make sure my foot was on the base. We’re taught to drag our foot across the bag, and I feel like that’s what I did. I feel like he was out.” — Cardinals SS Ryan Theriot on the play where he was ejected in the sixth.

****I won’t be going to Pittsburgh as I take some days (my personal All-Star break). Back at it on Friday.

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The biggest win of the year is only big if it’s followed by (many) more wins than losses over the next 9 games. Cozrt, every day. Heisey every day. Enjoy your time off, Mark, which you have amply earned.

Agree with you about Cozart and Heisey, with major reservations. Cozart is having that blissful debut run that many players have when they first break into the bigs. But scouting books on him are being compiled as we speak. The pitchers and scouts will catch up with him. Then it’s a question of the adjustments he makes at that juncture. Some players never pull it off successfully. Even a player the likes of Bruce has never had a run, despite his amazing May earlier this year, the equal of what he wowed us with in his first weeks up back a few years. So the Cozart jury is still out, but, for now, of couHeisey rse, he must be played. Heisey is an entirely different matter. Contrary to conventional wisdom, he has been given a shot or two at starting consecutively, and the results have been atrocious. He has come to be viewed by Baker and the front office as a very good spot player who must be judiciously used in occasional situations. That may prove to be the case, but I feel he can;t be relegated to that role without even more of a chance than so far afforded him.

Curt, what are your suggestions? What’s the solution? It’s too late to say it’s early, the team can turn it around. Something’s got to be switched up doesn’t it? Is it, bring up Mesoraco now? Is it Alonso in left field? Is it make a big push to get Jimenez from Colorado? Here’s what it can’t be: status quo till all we’re left with is the QB-less Bengals. That’ll be fun in October!

Wednesday A.M.: Double gack! Reds’ pitching has given up one bad inning’s worth of runs in three games and won just one. Ok, Captain Obvious here. Who would you rather have batting in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out, Mike Leake or Jay Bruce? Joey Votto’s trying to win the MVP with every at bat, Brandon’s pressing, too, Stubbs has one good game a week. Rolen’s hurt, if not done. Hannigan, Cairo, Lewis, Gomes et al are what they are. We don’t know what Cozart and Heisey are. What spark is missing to make these parts, known and unknown, work together to win? And other questions and statements of frustration. It’s the day-in, day-out part of it that’s getting to me. I really thought the all-star break would throw some sort of switdh, from reverse to forward, and it’s just the same-old, same-old. Something needs to be done, whatever it is, now, before the trade deadline. Otherwise, by then, we’ll be the Cubs. Triple gack!

Start preparing for next year, not an August-September run this year. It ain’t gonna happen. Even if you make acquisitions, do it for the Big Picture. Five out with sixty-five to go would be daunting enough by itself. But to close that gap and pass three clubs in the process is next to impossible. So look for a big right-handed bat for the middle of the lineup, at least one more starter, and begin to totally restructure the lower end of the bullpen, but with next year in mind.

Throw the names into a hat and pull them out and have a totally different lineup, at least you could say you are trying something. Here is probably our best possible lineup….
Cozart
Phillips
Votto
Heisey
Bruce
Hernandez
Cario
Stubbs

Wednesday game time: Curt, you’re not getting your lineup, or the out-of-a-hat lineup either. I looked in on Pittsburgh’s mlb blog, provided by a nice looking young woman named Jennifer Langosch. She doesn’t post as often as Mark Sheldon, but her contents similar. Even fewer comments than here. None for the past week! You’d think the fans would be posting every day to remind each other to pinch themselves! Pittsburgh’s got 9 games left with the Reds and 13 with the Cardinals! Oh, well. That’s their problem. Ours is a lineup today with no Cozart, no Phillips. Renteria and Cairo are in. Of course, everything is counterintuitive – maybe they’ll score 13 today. Go Reds!.

I was remembereing yesterday how last year’s team had trouble beating the good teams and feasted on the poor ones. This year’s team strikes me as being the same, but there are more good teams this year. Apparently the schedule gives the reds some bottom feeders to beat up beginning soon. Maybe that’ll help them.

This sounds like continuing hope. But even a bottom-feeder schedule won’t bail the team out (and I don’t think it’s all that skewed in their favor particularly when matching it up against the remaining schedule of all the other contenders). Yesterday’s results speak to the point I made about how hard it is to catch three well-bunched teams. The Reds finally get a win against the leader of the pack (yes, Pittsburgh!), but, at the end of the day, you only piick up a half game in the standings because of all the jockeying going on in front of you. I’ll repeat: begin preparing for next year…

Curt: I went on your blog and read. Tried posting my reaction there, but couldn’t, which is another way of admitting to my lack of computer savvy……………………………An interesting approach since most of us are similarly torn. The one point I strongly disagree with is the assertion the team has a track record of hitting. Not if last year is viewed as the fluke. Then the failures, collectively this season, represent more of a reversion to previous seasons, particularly in terms of clutch hitting. It really comes down to “when” you score, and this 2011 team is as bad at that as any team I can recollect. The half-game pick-up yesterday demonstrates you aren’t 4 1\2 back in effect. More like nine or even 13+ when you multiply by a factor reflecting the number of teams ahead of you. In that perspective, I think my recommendation holds: start preparing for next year! But I’ll be very happy to be dead wrong…

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